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Music Education and Cultural Studies

The main objective of the research group Music education and cultural studies is to explore perspectives that are relevant to the field of music education through a Cultural Studies-inspired theoretical lens.

Affiliation:
Faculty of Education
Academic discipline:
Upbringing and education
Illustration. (Photo: Colourbox)
Photo: Colourbox

This involves examining the connections between music and the surrounding society, different cultural expressions related to popular music, and the importance of music in a multicultural society. Furthermore, a cultural didactic perspective is applied to music educational practice. Such an approach opens up for exploring how teaching and learning practices function as arenas for the construction and negotiation of meaning, power and identity, and also entails an understanding of formal and informal teaching and learning practices as equal points on an education-related continuum, rather than as separate realities. 

What we research

The research group approaches the objectives outlined above through a variety of theoretical and methodological approaches. Ongoing and recently completed projects have focused on music-related teaching and learning in kindergarten, primary school, the Norwegian municipal schools of music and performing art, upper secondary school, higher music education and several informal learning arenas. Additionally, much of the group's research concerns music in popular culture and the (online) public sphere more broadly. 

More about the research group

Many of the research group's activities have revolved around externally funded projects. The project “Musical gentrification and socio-cultural diversities” (funded by the Research Council of Norway; 2013-2017) included five of the group's members at the time, as well as three external partners. An important contribution from the study is the anthology Musical Gentrification: Popular Music, Distinction and Social Mobility (2020). The study was continued in the project "DYNAMUS - The social dynamics of musical upbringing and schooling in the Norwegian welfare state" (funded by the Research Council of Norway; 2018-2022). In this study, master's students collaborated with senior researchers, PhD students and a postdoctoral fellow to develop knowledge about the importance of music education for social participation and mobility in three formal and informal learning arenas. A third major project was the Erasmus+ funded "MaMuMi - Mapping the music of migration" (2019-2021), which explored migrants stories about the significance of music related to questions about belonging, cultural heritage, and intercultural exchange. The ongoing project "Exploring Social Politics, Inclusive Education, and Digital Democratization through the Lens of Norwegian Hip Hop Music" (NORHOP; funded by the Research Council of Norway; 2023-2027) explores the diverse significances of hip hop in present-day Norway. 

An important sub-area in the research group's activities is the exploration of children's and young people's musical realities and the preconditions for these, both within and outside the framework of different school types, often seen in light of the increasing complexity of our cultures and societies. Additionally, many of the group's members are concerned with perspectives related to popular music, both in music education and more generally. 

 

Conferences and events

7 March 2026 12:00 - 17:30 campus Hamar / Zoom: Unsettling Music Education. A research symposium in honour of Petter Dyhndahl

6 May - 3 June, Zoom: All digital PhD-course (4 ETC): Music Education and Social Theory. Deadline for application: 15 March 2026. Follow the link for more information, and to explore course content!

Contact the research group

Picture of Kai Arne Hansen
Kai Arne Hansen
Professor
Email
kai.hansen@inn.no
Phone
+47 62 59 79 92
Camilla Kvaal
Førsteamanuensis
Email
camilla.kvaal@inn.no
Phone
+47 62 51 76 21

Members